Group wants to know cost of sex-workers conference at UNH

Tuesday

Apr 30, 2013 at 3:15 AMApr 30, 2013 at 3:49 PM

By Michelle Kingstonmkingston@fosters.com

DURHAM — Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire filed a Right-to-Know request with the University of New Hampshire Monday morning to determine the cost of a mini-conference on sex workers hosted by the school's Women's Studies Program.

While Greg Moore, state director for Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire, said he is not sure how much a conference such as this costs, he believes it could be upward of a couple thousand dollars, considering one of the sex workers is from San Francisco, Calif., and two other members of the panel traveled from New York City.

“Last week, the University System came before the Senate Finance committee and said they needed an additional $12 million in taxpayer subsidies,” Moore said in a public statement. “At the same time, they indicated that the system had gone to great lengths to reduce all unnecessary expenditures. That's why we think it's critical to find out just how much money UNH spent on this conference, so that state policymakers can decide if there is more fat to trim from the System budget that can save taxpayers from any additional burden.”

Moore does not believe conferences such as this one hosted by the university earlier this month are essential to the mission of the school.“It just seems like some priorities have been misplaced,” Moore said.

The mini-conference spanned throughout the day on Tuesday, April 16, starting with a documentary and ending with a 7 p.m. panel discussion on the rights of sex workers.

Although Moore would not say it was the topic of this conference that motivated him to file the Right to Know request, he did say the university systems should be asking before spending on “these type of conferences.”

“It's got everything to do with the priorities of UNH,” Moore said. “If you see that type of thing happening at UNH, you have to ask yourself: 'Is that the best way of (spending) resources and the best way to keep tuition in place for our students and the best way to keep taxpayer subsidies as limited as possible?'”

In the request sent to UNH President Mark Huddleston Monday morning, Moore asks for all documents and records relating to the expenses associated with the conference, such as travel, lodging, honoraria, speaking fees, stipend, room and board, room acquisition and janitorial expenses.

Moore said the university has five days to acknowledge the request. They can fulfill it by Monday, May 6, or notify Moore that they need more time to gather the materials for him.

Moore wants to make the documents available for policymakers in the Senate. He said he hopes to have the information by next Thursday, May 9, when the Senate Finance Committee holds public hearings.

The public statement sent by the organization said they heard about the conference just weeks after they revealed that the University System had spent at least $65 million over the past 10 years on professors' sabbaticals.

According to The Associated Press, the university said last week that they also need New Hampshire to be a “better partner” in order to keep the cost of tuition down.

The office of President Mark Huddleston said they had no information related to the Right-to-Know request on Monday afternoon.

The university's media relations director, Erika Mantz, however, did release this statement: “We have received the RTK request and are working to determine what, if any, costs were associated with the conference. It's unfortunate that the former chief of staff to former Speaker of the House Bill O'Brien and AFP are going to such lengths to paint UNH in a negative light in an attempt to manipulate the debate over the cost of higher education on middle class families in the state. To issue a press release in advance of the RTK request only underscores their motive and efforts.”

Americans for Prosperity is a grass-roots movement of more than 2.3 million activists nationwide who advocate and promote limited government, lower taxes, and more freedom. There are more than 29,000 activists across New Hampshire.

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